Day: July 2, 2021

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON – There has been widespread condemnation in Cameroon of the killing and beheading of government troops and civilians, including an influential cleric, by suspected separatist fighters. Cameroonian officials say June was the bloodiest month of the year, with more than 40 people killed and 70 houses torched.

Cameroon’s military says it was involved in at least 30 heavy gun battles with separatists in June. A military spokesman said Anglophone rebels massacred several dozen civilians and tried to blame the military. The statement by Army Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo also said three troops were killed and beheaded in Bamali, an English-speaking northwestern village two weeks ago.

Atonfack said on Cameroon state radio, CRTV, that many army vehicles were destroyed but did not give details on how many troops were killed. Local media, such as Vision 4 TV and Canal 2 International, reported that at least 40 troops, separatist fighters and civilians were killed in Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West Regions in June.

Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon’s North-West Region, says several civilians including a Muslim cleric were accused of collaborating with the military and beheaded. Tchoffo says many civilians were killed by homemade bombs that are increasingly used by separatist fighters.

He says he has ordered the military to adopt different strategies to respond to new forms of separatist attacks, such as the use of improvised bombs that cause huge casualties among civilians and government troops. He says the military has been deployed to stop fighters. He says village chiefs, the clergy and militias created by civilians should assist the military by sharing information on possible separatist hideouts.

Tchoffo says it will be difficult for the military to restore peace if civilians refuse to collaborate with the military for fear of being targeted by separatist fighters.

Capo Daniel is a self-proclaimed deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, a rebel group in Cameroon’s western regions. He says fighters have reviewed their strategy and are increasingly planting bombs on roads used by the military.

“It has been close to a year now since the Cameroon military introduced armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles, so our forces [separatist fighters] on the ground have adapted and they are now using improvised explosive devices to target those armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles. We have used those weapons in Kumbo in Melim, in Jakiri, in Nkar, Takijah area there and going towards Ndu. We are in the middle of a war,” he said.

Cameroon’s military said it detonated 30 IEDs planted by fighters in 14 northwestern towns and villages including Melim, Jakiri and Nkar.

Civilians said the military torched houses in villages and towns where bombs were planted, accusing civilians of collaborating with fighters by not reporting them.

The military said it remained professional and accused separatist fighters of what it called atrocities.

Cameroonian NGOs, churches and political parties including the opposition Social Democratic Front and the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement have condemned the killing and beheading. The SDF described June as the bloodiest month this year in Cameroon.

Fabrice Lena is secretary general of the Popular Action Party and coordinator of the NGO African Peoples Foundation, which protects civilians in conflict. He blames both the military and separatist fighters for abuses on civilians.

“Violence in all its forms is unacceptable. Beheading is gross human rights violation, and we have to understand that whatever thing that people do, they are going to face the law, face justice because we are very sure that we [Cameroonians] are going to set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission that will investigate into the crimes that have been committed by whosoever. So we condemn all sorts of killing, violence, beheading and burning of houses by separatist or the military. It is unacceptable,” Lena said.

Violence erupted in 2017 in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

The United Nations says 3,000 people have been killed and more than 750,000 displaced in Cameroon’s French-speaking towns and in neighboring Nigeria.

The Norwegian Refugee Council reports that Cameroon tops its annual list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises.

Source: Voice of America

MOSCOW – Russia recently sent a group of 600 military instructors to the Central African Republic to train the army, police, and national gendarmerie, Russia’s foreign ministry said Friday.

Moscow is in the spotlight after a United Nations report, seen by Reuters Tuesday, said Russian military instructors and local troops had targeted civilians with excessive force, indiscriminate killings, occupation of schools and large-scale looting.

The Kremlin has said it is a lie that Russian instructors had taken part in killings or robberies.

Russia notified the United Nations Security Council of the deployment of the 600 instructors, Russia’s foreign ministry told Reuters in a statement Friday. It did not say when exactly they arrived.

Moscow has been jockeying for influence in the troubled African nation with France, which has around 300 troops there. The gold and diamond-rich country of 4.7 million people is mired in violence.

Moscow’s latest deployment of instructors comes after it said it had sent 175 instructors to CAR to train the army at the request of the local authorities in 2018, a number that subsequently grew to 235. Another batch of 300 were sent ahead of last December’s elections to train local troops, it said.

“The Russian specialists will continue their work based on the needs of the official authorities of the CAR, taking into account CAR’s leadership as well as the ongoing clashes between regular CAR troops and militants,” the foreign ministry said.

It said that the instructors would not themselves be involved in combat operations against illegal groups.

“The goals of achieving a lasting settlement and ensuring security in the country cannot be met without effective support for the CAR authorities in enhancing the combat capabilities of the national armed forces and law enforcement agencies,” it said.

Source: Voice of America

NAIROBI, KENYA – Ethiopia’s government rejected accusations Friday that it’s trying to “suffocate” the people of Tigray by denying them urgently needed food and other aid, as transport and communications links remained severed to the region that faces one of the world’s worst famines in a decade.

Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen spoke to reporters a day after a bridge that’s crucial for accessing much of the region of 6 million people was destroyed and the United Nations indicated that special forces from the neighboring Amhara region were to blame. Amhara authorities have occupied western Tigray and forced out hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans.

“The insinuation that we are trying to suffocate the Tigrayan people by denying humanitarian access and using hunger as a weapon of war is beyond the pale. There is absolutely no reason for us to do so. These are our people,” Demeke said.

Ethiopia’s government blamed Tigray forces for the bridge’s destruction. But an aid worker who traveled to the site said area residents described to him how they saw Amhara special forces placing objects on the bridge and driving away after the blast. “They still seemed in shock at what had happened,” Roger Sandberg, vice president of field operations with Medical Teams International, told The Associated Press.

Sandberg said area residents also told him that there was no other way to cross, while Tigray forces conveyed to him that they wouldn’t obstruct NGO access to the region.

The U.N. Security Council was meeting to discuss Tigray on Friday.

Unilateral cease-fire

In a stunning turn earlier this week, Ethiopia declared a unilateral cease-fire on humanitarian grounds while retreating from Tigray forces. But the government faces growing international pressure as it continues to cut off the region from the rest of the world. Aid workers say fuel and other supplies are running low.

In a strikingly outspoken statement, the World Food Program said Friday that a second key bridge leading into Tigray was destroyed on Thursday, while no WFP flights bringing in U.N. or other aid workers have been allowed by Ethiopia since June 22.

Even before the bridges were destroyed, at least 3,800 metric tons of food had been blocked from reaching parts of western Tigray, WFP emergency coordinator Tommy Thompson told reporters in Geneva. He warned that “more people will die” if access doesn’t materialize but added that an air bridge might be set up in coming days.

The U.N. agency said trucks were loaded and ready to replenish its nearly exhausted food stocks inside Tigray, where 5.2 million people need emergency food aid. “We’ll be out of food in the northwest by this weekend,” Thompson said.

Up to 900,000 people in Tigray are facing famine, the United States has said. A new U.N. humanitarian update issued late Thursday said that “the blackout of electricity, telecommunications and internet throughout Tigray region will only exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation.”

Ethiopia’s foreign minister said the government has a road map for dialogue to resolve the Tigray crisis that’s expected to include “rank and file members of the [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] who show readiness to choose a peaceful path.” But Tigray forces, recently designated by Ethiopia as a terrorist group, now control most of the region and have demanded that Ethiopia resume basic services before any talks.

“A cease-fire doesn’t mean cutting a region off power or destroying critical infrastructure,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted Friday. “A credible cease-fire means doing everything possible so that aid reaches the millions of children, women and men who urgently need it.”

The security situation in Tigray was generally calm after the retreat of Ethiopian forces and those of neighboring Eritrea, who have been accused by witnesses of some of the worst atrocities in the war. Officials with Eritrea, an enemy of Tigray leaders after a 1998-2000 war along their border, have not responded to requests for comment.

Amhara authorities have warned Tigray forces against trying to retake the region’s western areas. But the Tigray forces spokesman told the AP this week they would “liberate” the region from “enemies,” and thousands of fighters were seen heading west.

Ethiopia’s government has said the cease-fire will last only until the crucial farming season in Tigray is over, meaning September. But the WFP said farmers have already missed the peak planting month of June because of seed and fertilizer shortages.

Source: Voice of America